Computer Services is developing a new Mt. Hood Community College web portal for the convenience of students and faculty members.

A Title III federal grant, passed in 2003, gave MHCC $1.7 million in grant money. According to the dean of social science, integrated media arts and mathematics, Valerie Ward, the purpose of the grant is to integrate technology with the educational curriculum of the college over the course of five years. In May 2005, a part of the grant was used to buy new software from a company called Jenzabar. The new software was to be used for creating a new web portal.

The web portal pulls information from the Jenzabar CX, a web application (such as online registration, online bill payment, and student grades) into one application. By logging onto the website, students can make their own choices of what to display on the page, and it will save the changes to student accounts. It doesn’t matter where a student logs in from, it will remembers student settings.

Bill Snyder, director of computer and telecommunication services, said the portal is “a single point of contact that a student can do their business with the college, rather than have to search around for things.” Snyder is the head of the project along with seven other members of Computer Services.

A big feature that the web portal will offer is a master calendar. For the master calendar the person using the website can choose whatever they want to put on it: sports dates, theater dates, personal dates, school related events, etc. This can also correlate with the schedule of the student’s instructor. If the instructor posts homework assignments and tests on their calendars, the student can subscribe to that class calendar and receive the information on their personal calendars. Everything a student subscribes to, and the dates they set up, will appear on the master calendar when they log in. There is also an option where students can plan out their day. A student can also limit information they don’t want to see; it is highly customizable by the individual.

The portal acts as a personal page to students. After logging in, there is a tab called “My Pages.” Here a student can customize the look of the page and choose other different options, like checking classes. There are links running down the side where they can click and it will bring them to a page containing information on that class. There the student can check the instructor’s announcements and what they have planned for the week.

Students can check their grades and attendance, but this depends on if the instructor wants to post it or not. Also, there is an option where a student can add their favorite links to an area for easy access. For example, MySpace fans can have the option of adding their MySpace page link to a box where it is available with one click anytime they want.

This portal can also be used for the enhancement of teacher-student relationship. For each class, there will be a chatting option. It’s up to the instructor on how it will be used, they can use it as a chatroom or office hours. The instructor can post announcements and reminders, and it will automatically update and show up on his/her student’s page. For example, if an instructor is sick, they can put out an announcement, and depending on if the student checks their page, they would know not to come to class that day. Other things that instructors can post are their syllabus and handouts.

As mentioned before, seven members of Computer Services are working on the web portal. Not every one of them can work on the portal 100 percent of the time because they have other work to do for the college. When they do work on it, they work on it individually. Some of them work on moving and interconnecting the databases over to the portal.

“They’re creating links [between the database and portal] and the trick is to make the link be the correct information,” Snyder said.

Some are working on the “look and feel” portion of the portal, like color and layout. The people working on this portion are some of the same people who work on the school’s website. Computer Services receives additional help from vendor employees at Jenzabar, who help them with the software.

Coordinator of the Resident Technical Expert (RTE) group, Paul Morris, is figuring out how the portal would work using a different portal containing real MHCC data. His job is to train the other 10 to 14 RTE members and some staff members on how to use the portal. Those RTE members will then go back to their departments and teach instructors on how to use the portal.

“I’m more of the guy who’s learning it, trying it and teaching it to others,” Morris said, “The nice thing is that you can play with this and not break it.”

The training for the web portal started two weeks ago, and Morris offers three sessions a week; but staff only need to attend one session per week. The sessions will continue until December.

Morris is working on a program called Tegrity; it’s an online presentation similar to Power Point but with a voice-over. Tegrity offers instructions on how to use to the portal; all a person has to do is log on and watch it. Morris mentioned that there is a pause mode where the presentation can be paused, and try out what was just seen on the real portal. Morris is hoping that Tegrity will be posted on the portal as a form of help, but he’s not certain if it will. Administrative approval is needed.

The method for teaching students on how to use the portal is still in planning. Snyder said that some students would have an idea of how to use portals since there are other portals out there. If not, they’re developing an online instruction area. They will place it out there and see what questions are asked and what information needs to be posted.

Snyder said it will be another two months before the web portal will be introduced to the campus. They plan to have it available to the students and staff members of MHCC by Jan. 3, 2006.